Teachers, salespeople, counselors and hostage negotiators often use questions to lead participants (e.g., students, visitors, prospects, customers, patients, etc.) to reason for themselves and reach a logical conclusion desired by the interrogator through use of the Socratic Method. The advent of computers and the world wide computer network commonly referred to as the “Internet” has caused a rapid increase in contacts where a self-directed participant initiates contact with and explores a website. (Applicant at times refers to a “website” as a “site” herein.) However, the use of questions or prompts based on prior responses in a series leading to a particular desired conclusion has not been automated to utilize these innovations.
Currently a site or software at a site may be designed for a “target participant” and be capable of handling common questions, objections, concerns, or misconceptions in a broadcast manner, with at most, an offer of “more information.” A “target participant” is a person exhibiting a predetermined set of characteristics i.e., characteristics preferred by the operator or owner of the site. A site may be constructed without the site's designer knowing whether common parameters apply to a particular visitor. Unlike an inter-personal contact between, for example, a student and a teacher, which is interactive, customized and variable, sites have not been designed to attempt to lead any particular individual participant regardless of who they are to a desired conclusion by using a participant's own responses to a series of prompts.
Presently many designers of software programs for sites obtain data through surveys to determine what presentations are preferable for “target participants,” and what are the potential objections, attitudes, preferences and values of participants. Present day designers of sites use this information to create materials to display at websites. The viewing of such displays at sites by individuals is similar to a TV commercial broadcast, that is, the material presented is created with the aid of market research to be appealing to the expected general viewer. TV commercial broadcast and present day websites do not customize the message for each individual TV viewer or web site page visitor in a persistent interactive way.
Some present day websites or software programs permit the website visitor to provide additional information so that a determination may be made as to what other material or information to display to the site visitor. For example, a site that is directed to movies and theater may have the capacity to receive Zip Code information from the viewer. The viewer may then enter a Zip Code and the display will change to list the theaters within the Zip Code area along with the movies being shown at each theater and the show times. However, present day websites suffer from the limitation that they do not reason with the individual site visitor and they do not utilize the knowledge, prejudices and personal characteristics of a particular site visitor in order to change the mind of the visitor. Some present day websites may display questions and request responses to test the understanding of the participant before the participant is taken to the next step, or next web page, (i.e. next display). However, such websites though they may provide test results (i.e., visitor response data to the operator of the website) and may even require a certain response before displaying the next web page, they do not attempt to persuade, reason or lead the visitor to a conclusion in a persistent “interactive” fashion. Such websites merely elicit present opinion, knowledge or other types of information from the site visitor, or offer opinion, knowledge or other types of information to the site visitor. Sites that are more than a survey (i.e., more than mere data gathering sites) still do not attempt in a step-by-step logical manner, to lead the visitor to change his mind, make a decision or learn by repeated questioning to determine whether the participant reads, understands or is satisfied with the information already presented, providing additional persuasive material, and testing whether he has been led to reevaluate his position or change his mind on a particular topic or issue. (As used herein, masculine pronouns include the feminine and vice versa.)
There is thus a need for interactive websites and the like which are capable of using logic and reason to guide a visitor from an initial position or opinion to a position or opinion desired by the site designer in a logical and rational manner and, potentially, to elicit some action by the visitor which is desired by the site designer or operator. Additionally, there is a need for interactive websites and the like which are capable of using logic and reason to reinforce a position or opinion of a visitor that concurs with the position or opinion desired by the website designer or operator through a logical, rational process, and potentially to elicit some desired action by the visitor.